A better sense of self

(Above) The Samsung Galaxy A7.

Selfies are probably about to get a lot more artsy, at least if you plan on picking up a Samsung Galaxy A8 or A8 Plus next year. How do we know? Why, it’s in the manual.

Somehow the manual for the still-unannounced Samsung Galaxy A8 got uploaded to Samsung’s website, and above all, it reveals that the upcoming phone will have two front-facing cameras, as Android Police discovered.

(One note: This isn’t the same Galaxy A8 that was released in China a couple of years ago, and there’s always a possibility the name might change as a result.)

There’s not much other new information available than that, but it’s potentially exciting as it means you’ll soon be able to take selfies with the backgrounds blurred and the focus entirely on beautiful you.

According to a YouTube video from a user in Bangladesh that was quickly taken down today, the two front cameras shoot photos in 16MP and 8MP respectively. The video seemed to confirm much of the other information in the manual and provide additional information.

Image credit: Samsung

Dual selfie cameras marks a smart move, as Samsung’s Live Focus mode (or Apple’s Portrait mode) are far more likely to be used by selfie takers than people taking shots of their friends. I mean, let’s be honest.

Dual rear cameras have been a feature on many high-end smartphones for a couple of years now, but only rarely have we seen them on the front. The Lenovo Vibe S1 was an early exception.

A galaxy to explore

And that’s about all the big news the manual reveals, aside from the happy discovery that the fingerprint sensor has finally been moved below the rear-facing camera (which, notably, appears to be a single lens).

The rest of the diagrams show fairly predictable or at least unsurprising stuff, such as thin bezels and an 18:9 aspect ratio for the “Infinity” display that resembles that of the Samsung Galaxy S8. The devices will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and they retain their increasingly endangered earphone jacks.

There’s no word on when Samsung will properly announce the devices, but good guesses would probably be CES 2018 or MWC 2018.